Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Less Tea Drinking, More Drone Strikes

NPR's perky sock monkey has earned her own comic strip with her latest effort. All Ms. Martin's statements are straight from Monday's ATC "report" which is introduced by Audie Cornish. Hover over panels to see which ones have superpowered hyperlinks!











Posted by Mytwords at 3:09 PM
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5 comments:

Porter Melmoth said...

Rachel Martin's face says it all: YOU FOUND ME OUT.

As for myself, the perniciousness of NPR has once again fried my (critical) tolerance of that outfit.

Again I have to jettison its wearisome infiltration of my relative well-being.

The Neocon (to use a generic term) agenda continues unabated at NPR, but it is particularly the increasing vapidness, banality, and downright insulting hodge-podge of sick-making ingredients that's causing me to eject their noise this time. What with the little 2-3 second sound bytes of, say, a snowblower in action (stock library sounds, or actual on-the-scene recordings in snow-struck NYC??), or some frikkin' 'report' about a part of the brain that makes it possible to talk with Awful Uncle Ed at Xmas, I've once again HAD IT with Nauseating Public Reaction. (The 'Awful Uncle Ed' epithet is an actual term employed by a particular second-string NPR smartass. Uh, did they have you in mind, edk?)

Anyway, this is all nothing new of course. But the new, dumber-ed down NPR is not-so-mute evidence that Viv & Co. are wasting no time in new audience capturement, so they're radically ramping up the 'ho-ho news' as they used to call it in the post-Spiro Agnew Speech era.

This is of course a blatant misuse of the public trust, as any amount of vapid, shallow and silly radio can be found elsewhere just by twisting the dial. In fact, commercial radio, which found its place long ago, is basically less sickening than NPR, because at least it's not subverting our expectations.

Anyway, I'll continue to peruse here, but NPRadiation Exposure is restricted to the occasional newsreading - at my peril.

Soldier on, gang!

12/28/10, 5:23 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Couple more points, then I'll shut my piehole for a spell.

Continuing a thought...

The 'Awful Uncle Ed' epithet is an actual term employed by a particular second-string NPR smartass. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. And the problem remains: what if you love your old Uncle Ed? People with beloved Uncle Eds should bombast NPR with mockery. NPR tries to be blithe and savvy, with a touch of the swagger, so as to appeal to the hipster quality that less discerning listeners respond to as they might the latest Mall trend.

And then there's the quality of the 'ho-ho' in the ho-ho news. I'm not the only one who thinks it's abysmal.

NPR's just trying to be funny, ya know. What are they trying to be FUNNY for? Audiences love comedy, but why the hell would you ever go to NPR's news people for comedy??

Oh, I know, it softens all the otherwise depressing news. But for anyone who's depressed by the news, try to DO something about it, even in your own tiny way, or don't complain. One of the best tiny ways is shutting off NPR. With the Net, there are many, many other more reliable sources to get one's (depressing) news than depressingly-bad NPR.

(The most obscure Groucho Marx joke is infinitely more hilarious and memorable than ANY attempt our NPR lifers have made to make me crack a smile.)

NPR's continued decline into audience pandering is blatant evidence enough of NPR's commercial/corporate mandate: increase ratings for corporate sponsorship, otherwise, what corporation in their right mind would want to waste the money for? I suppose there are enough austerely Neocon organizations who would continue to hone NPR's propaganda potential, but if listeners decline, you can't propagandize them as widely.

As another, saner Ed would say, (no doubt an Uncle Ed to someone out there), good night - and good luck.

12/28/10, 5:51 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Sorry, the previous yakking was more suited for a Q Tip moment.

Re: NPR's Af-Pak strategy. Mere pandering of a different, worse kind. Armitage continues a great tradition: 'If we'd only just nuke (fill blank), then they wouldn't be a problem anymore'.

All the powers involved are just continuing their jack-off policies, and in 40 years one of them will still be around to make a McNamara 'we got it all wrong' statement.

NPR is as complicit as any of them.

12/28/10, 6:01 PM
gDog said...

GSAVES never caught on,huh? GWOT endures. Long live GWOT The Bushies (who still rule - never mind that useful idiot in the WH) won't be happy until they have giant guard towers (satellites) hovering over every corner of the globe with "rods from god" at the ready.

12/28/10, 6:26 PM
Anonymous said...

I heard Temple(of Doom)-Rastin reporting from a food show in NYC. I think her life may be in danger from the "tourists" there in Pawkistaan so the CIA (or perhaps the Institute for More Study of War WTF!!!) convoyed her to a "safe house" in NYC. She went deep, using her disguise as a food reporter to throw the bad people off her trail. One can only hope for success!


edk

12/29/10, 9:19 AM

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